1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to data communications. In particular, the present invention is related to a Non-Broadcast Multiple Access (NBMA), Inverse Next Hop Resolution Protocol (InNHRP) for identifying an internetwork address or for resolution of subnetwork resources.
2. Description of Related Art
The Inverse Address Resolution Protocol (InARP), as set forth in Bradley, T., Brown, C., and Malis, A., “Inverse Resolution Protocol”, Work In Progress (intended to replace RFC 1293), allows a station, i.e., a node, in a subnetwork to request an upper layer protocol address corresponding to a particular hardware address. InARP is specifically designed, for example, to provide a station in a Frame Relay network the ability to determine the protocol address of a station on the other side of a Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) connection, given the Data Link Connection Identifier (DLCI—the Frame Relay hardware address) associated with the PVC. InARP is limited, however, in that it only provides for protocol address resolution, and only within a single subnetwork. Furthermore, InARP and the like have no provision for dealing with NBMA link layer technologies such as anycast addresses, which may require a query to traverse multiple LIS subnets.
Accordingly, there is a need in the technology for a method and apparatus for overcoming the above-identified problems. There is a particular need for a method and apparatus to provide for the resolution of addresses and resources across subnetworks.